In
her order, Chief U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp said the 500-foot buffer doesn't deprive
protestors of the opportunity to reach their target audience and also
permits law enforcement to manage the logistical concerns of large
crowds...

In
a news release, a spokeswoman for Nebraska Attorney General Doug
Peterson said the state defended the law because Nebraska has a
substantial interest in protecting the peace and privacy of people
paying their respects to the dead.

"Nebraska’s
Funeral Picketing Law does not restrict Westboro Baptist Church from
expressing its protest message by ample, alternative methods, which
methods should not include disrupting funerals," the release said.

.

The judge's decision comes just more than a year after both sides made their cases during a week-long trial.

In
a news release, a spokeswoman for Nebraska Attorney General Doug
Peterson said the state defended the law because Nebraska has a
substantial interest in protecting the peace and privacy of people
paying their respects to the dead.

A federal judge on Wednesday upheld
the constitutionality of Nebraska's law that creates a 500-foot buffer
zone around funerals from pickets and rejected claims by Westboro
Baptist Church members that the law violated their free speech rights.

In
a 34-page ruling, Chief U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp said the
law is narrowly tailored and provides ample alternative channels for the
controversial church to share its message.

Plaintiff
Shirley Phelps-Roper and her fellow church members argued the law
unfairly targets the group and said police often allow counter
protesters including the Patriot Guard to get closer.

Members of the Wichita, Kansas,
church routinely protest at funerals nationwide, including those of
servicemen and women who die in combat, saying the Lord is punishing
America for allowing homosexuality. In Nebraska, the group has picketed
46 funerals since 2005.

Phelps-Roper's attorney, Margie Phelps, said they'll appeal.

Smith
Camp's ruling is necessary, Phelps said, so they can take their case to
the appellate level, where they believe laws like Nebraska's will be
struck down to "put some restraint on some out-of-control legislators
across the country."

Phelps-Roper sued
Nebraska's governor and attorney general, as well as Omaha's police
chief, in 2011 after the Legislature expanded the picketing buffer zone
from 300 feet to 500 feet.

In
her order, Smith Camp said the 500-foot buffer doesn't deprive
protestors of the opportunity to reach their target audience and also
permits law enforcement to manage the logistical concerns of large
crowds.

The judge's decision comes just more than a year after both sides made their cases during a week-long trial.

In
a news release, a spokeswoman for Nebraska Attorney General Doug
Peterson said the state defended the law because Nebraska has a
substantial interest in protecting the peace and privacy of people
paying their respects to the dead.

"Nebraska’s
Funeral Picketing Law does not restrict Westboro Baptist Church from
expressing its protest message by ample, alternative methods, which
methods should not include disrupting funerals," the release said.

Maynard (Bob "Gilligan's Island" Denver) slyly flashes a nipple to the CBS eye while trying to talk his best buddy Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hick­man) into taking off all his clothes. Whoever said 1950s television was a vast waste­land obviously didn't know where to look.